David Swanson is creator of MeetWithCindy.org, co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, a writer and activist. Here he discusses the current Resolution sitting with the House International Relations Committee and the Freedom Of Information request from Congress to which the administration has failed to respond:http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081905B.shtmlBush Won't Answer Cindy, But Has to Answer CongressBy David Swanson
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 19 August 2005
- snip -
Were the reasons Bush gave Congress for why the war was necessary truthful ones... If anyone can force Bush to answer these questions, or to concede that there are no respectable answers and that the war must end, it is Cindy. She is a remarkable woman. She's been accused of being used by leftwing groups, but she is driving them. Wednesday's vigils (over 50,000 people signed up to attend 1,627 events) is the biggest thing to ever hit MoveOn.org. The organizations are following Cindy's lead, not the other way around.
But I'm not betting any money on Bush choosing to end the war. Clearly it is to Congress that we need to look for elected officials over whom the people of this country may have some power. There is a Resolution of Inquiry sitting in the House International Relations Committee. It's called H Res 375, and if it passes, it will require the White House and the State Department to "transmit all information relating to communication with officials of the United Kingdom between January 1, 2002, and October 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the United States with respect to Iraq."
If Casey Sheehan died for a noble cause, Bush can volunteer the documents that this resolution will require him to produce. Not only has he not done so, but he has illegally refused to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from 52 members of Congress asking for similar information.
The National Security Archive today made available recently declassified documents obtained through an FOIA request that show that the Bush administration was planning to remove Saddam Hussein as early as October 2001. I added this to the huge pile of evidence listed down the left side of the AfterDowningStreet.org website. I know what Cindy's reaction will be when she reads it - anger. That was her reaction to the Downing Street Memos and the other evidence that presents so powerful a case that Bush took this nation to war, and cost Casey Sheehan his life, on the basis of lies.
MORE INCLUDING A REQUEST FOR ACTION